Elaboration and validation of didactic material on public communication of science for undergraduate Chemistry students from participant research

• Grant number: 20/03233-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: December 01, 2020
• End date: July 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Éder Tadeu Gomes Cavalheiro
• Grantee: Carolina Sotério
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/14496-4 - Preparing and validating a textbook on public communication of science and technology for undergraduate chemistry students based on participatory research, BE.EP.DD

Abstract

Public Communication of Science (PCS) has a fundamental role in the science dissemination in society. However, it is necessary that the authors engaged in PCS have adequate instruction to do it, in order to avoid the dissemination of pseudoscientific information and the perpetuation of an ineffective communication between researchers and the community. In view of the scarce availability of didactic material on the subject, an in-depth study on the theme is required so that tools that favor the occurrence of an excellency PCS can be provided. In this work, we aim to develop and validate didactic-instructional material on PCS for undergraduate Chemistry students, with a focus on writing Popular Science Texts (PST). For that, the foundations of the participant research will be considered. The research corpus will consist of four stages: the first one, dedicated to institutional and methodological assembly, will be based on the strategies definition of the participants involved (undergraduate, graduate students, Science journalists and professors, all in the Chemistry area) and research activity field; the second one, called a preliminary and provisional study, will be based on the investigation of the participants' previous knowledge; in the third step, related to the critical analysis of the problems considered priority, group meetings will be held with the participants to investigate different aspects of the problem; the fourth and last stage, referring to the programming and execution of an action plan, will be aimed at the validation of the didactic material by the participants and other specialists in the area. In this process, the participants' perceptions collected during the group meetings will be submitted to content analysis, in order to promote a discussion and comparison with the literature regarding the issues surrounding the PCS. (AU)